A female Rikers Island guard faces up to four years in prison for allegedly raping an inmate and possessing marijuana, which prosecutors say she intended to bring to him behind bars. Correction Officer Nicole Bartley, 30, was arrested Saturday after officers found 70 grams of marijuana at her Bronx home.
According to her criminal complaint, Bartley claims she was drawn into a romantic relationship with an inmate, who the Times identified as Dasmond Loveless. Loveless cannot legally consent to sex with someone overseeing his incarceration, a stipulation which has lead to Bartley's arrest for rape in the third degree.
"[He] played me for a fool," Bartley told investigators, according to the Daily News. The Rikers officer also admitted to plans to bring marijuana into the facility for Loveless. She now faces charges of third degree rape, sexual misconduct, official misconduct, promoting prison contraband, and criminal possession of marijuana in the fourth degree, authorities told the tabloid.
"I, Nicole, being a fool had my guard down to this man I thought (I) was falling in love with," Bartley wrote in her complaint. She went on to admit to having sex with Loveless on one occasion inside Rikers last month.
"I used a condom. It was in the closet in the morning when everyone else was locked in. It only lasted five minutes," Bartley wrote.
In a statement, Bronx DA Darcel Clark said that "such corrupt and indecent actions contribute to the troubling conditions on Rikers Island, and undermine safety and security there." Bartley is the 26th NYC Department of Correction employee arrested since the Department of Investigation began its probe into corruption at the prison in 2014.
